Happy May! Everything is blooming like mad here and if the sun didn't get so hot in the afternoons, I'd spend all day out there, lolling about in a bed of rose petals, if I could (and I probably could, with the roses going so wild, some are climbing up the trees while others are falling to the ground in disheveled splendor. I know, I know - I should be pruning more dligently, but they look so decadently beautiful there, I've just let them follow their wild ideas, this spring).
After I stop lollygagging around with the watering and come in for lunch, I've been playing flower fairy, inside. Busting out my little fabric stash, making flower corsages for Mother's Day for a few family members, friends and their mothers. I hope they like them. I do like some of these better than others (the flowers, that is, not the recipients). I may end up making a few more. I'm thinking of a wreath for the door, since I almost hate to stop making them. I especially enjoy the color/pattern mixing part and even the cutting, now that I've figured out an easier way (or at least, easier for me). Since I don't want to use up all of my stash (I WILL make that quilt someday - I will, I Will, I WILL too...), I've been eyeing through the ol' rag bag. Who knows, I may even end up cleaning out my closet...
Anyway, most of the tutorials I looked at online when I got the bug to make flowers, require drawing out or stencilling around a flower shape - and that just seemed rather tedious to me, especially when the markers I tried, all seemed to bleed through the fabric- and though I know you can buy proper markers, the point was to make these with what I had.
Then I figured out, if I first folded over the fabric into a triangle, I'd end up cutting a fairly nice square:
Which I could then fold and re-fold, into a lopsided cone:
And when I clipped the edges to resemble more of an ice cream cone (a rather blurry ice cream cone - sorry about that!):
Then, I'd end up with a fairly good circle:
To others this may all seem like a no brainer...In retrospect, it does seem rather elementary even for shape-cutting-challenged me (now), but since it took me some figuring out to get where I wanted to, with these (geometry has never been my strong point). I hope you don't mind, but I thought what the heck, I might as well go ahead and share it. Yay me - I finally joined the world of those who can cut out squares and circles that mostly look like squares and circles. I'd like a gold star now, please. ;)
Since I also wanted some of them to look more petal like than just circular - I finally stumbled across this shape (accidentally, I must admit), by taking a deeper cut on each side of the cone, almost like making a heart-shape (heart shapes - for the record, I have been able to make, for quite awhile):
And when you open the cone, all the way, it spreads into something,pretty much resembling a petalled-flower shape:
I forgot to take any pictures of the leaf-making, but those I just snipped a little triangle out of the center of the cone shape - like where the indentation is on this heart shape, only pointier, if that makes sense. It almost has a butterfly shape to it (in fact, I'm thinking about trying some of those. I'll let you know if they turn out at all...)
All of this may seem more complicated to others, than just simply drawing around a dang stencil shape - but for me, this way just has more flow. Fold, snip, snip. Fold, fold, fold. Snip snip...In fact, it's felt very zen-like.
Except for a little while, in the beginning - back when I was determined to use up some of my seed beads for the centers, but kept frustrating myself with threading and re-threading the invisible thread (which seems to be even more invisible than it used to be, to my middle-aged eyes), through the tiny beading needle for the first couple of flowers.. Till I finally threw down the beading needle, then hunted out my stash of much larger pearl beads (decor leftovers from some long ago weddings), some neutral button thread and a decent sized needle. Hallelujah! The centers went much more quickly after that and I was back in my zen zone. A happy flower fairy, again. Stacking up the different colors and sizes, then pulling a little running stitch around the pearl at the center, drawing it up a bit more into a flower shape. Stitch on a pinback, scrunch up the petals a bit more and spray some stiffening stuff on.
Put them on the garden swing to let the wind and sun dry them.
Sort of old-fashioned, but I like them. Since the real ones won't last forever, I think a mid-summer rose wreath might be in the works next...
Very pretty - I like those a lot!
And I can see the fun in playing with different combinations - or even areas of patterns... mmm...
Posted by: Caroline Randell | May 07, 2011 at 03:15 AM
Happy Mother's Day Tinker!
These corsages are WONDERFUL!! Hope the recipients love em too!!
A wreath sounds great!!
Thanks for the toot!
Glad I have you to run away with!
xox
Your Twin in bearded ladies~
Constance
Posted by: rochambeau | May 08, 2011 at 09:06 AM
Yeah Tinker you earned a big *GOLD STAR* for these.
They are Gorgeous really!! Don't you hate that invisible thread? Other things seem to be coming in smaller sizes lately too.
Happy Mothers Day to you dear sister friend...
with love.
Posted by: gemma | May 08, 2011 at 10:34 AM
These are so cute.... Have a great mothers day!
Posted by: Kate | May 08, 2011 at 05:29 PM
I'm sure everyone was delighted in these corsages!
I have my very special glasses that I must use to sew on seed beads.
x..x
Posted by: Stephanie | May 09, 2011 at 02:24 PM
Your fabric flowers are beautiful. I'm sure everyone was thrilled to wear one of them on Mother's Day.
Our roses are doing really good this year, too. So far only a couple of hot days but I know they're coming.
Posted by: Janet | May 10, 2011 at 09:32 AM